


Sweet Child O' Mine

by Ineffable_Idiot



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Background Relationships, Canon Compliant, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Co-Parenting, Cross-Post, Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Loki & Thor's Typical Bickering, Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, Minor FrostIron - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Avengers (2012), Pre-Thor (2011), Some angst, Song: So Close (Jon McLaughlin), Song: Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns N' Roses)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-19 01:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29618742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ineffable_Idiot/pseuds/Ineffable_Idiot
Summary: After having way too many drinks one celebratory evening, Heather and Primrose name Loki the godfather of their newborn, thinking it would be funny. What they didn't know was that he'd seen the whole thing from Asgard. Sure, they were just drunkenly joking around, but he decides to take it seriously.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	1. (Un)Planned Parenthood

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is cross-posted from another site. Inspired by this story prompt: "For lack of better candidates, someone's parents jokingly named the Norse God Loki as the child's godfather. He decides to take this seriously."

**_(2005)_ **

"Who would've imagined, just a year ago we couldn't even get married, let alone have a child, and now... " Heather Blackwood trailed off, cradling her newborn child in her arms as if she were going to break. Primrose, Heather's wife, stood next to her lover, her arm wrapped around Heather, holding back tears of pure joy. 

"Honey, as much as I know you'd rather hold our baby forever, we need to get a move on. Everyone's waiting for us at the house for the party." Primrose whispered into Heather's hair. 

Looking up at Primrose with mock exasperation, Heather scoffed. "Easy for you to say 'get a move on' when you didn't go through five hours of labor!"

Raising her eyebrows in equal false annoyance, Primrose smirked. "And you've had plenty of time to recover. I've already signed us out of the hospital, we've gotta leave soon before the doctors put us in wheelchairs and roll us out of here themselves."

Sighing with a smile, Heather slowly rose to her feet, their raven-haired baby tucked securely between her forearm and her chest, with Primrose by her side gently assisting her. After making their way out of the hospital and carefully driving home as to not scare their newborn, the two were greeted by each woman's parents, siblings, and any number of their friends who'd come out and gathered on their driveway to celebrate with them.

As soon as the two mothers left the car, a chorus of congratulations met them and woke the previously sleeping baby.

"Welcome back!"

"Aww, the kid's adorable!"

"They have your eyes, Prim!"

"You feeling OK, Heather?"

Questions flew out of their relatives mouths so fast that Heather and Primrose barely had time to answer them. 

"Whoa, whoa! Everybody step back and give the kid some space to breathe!" Heather's sister Sheila called from behind the mob of family and friends. Everyone stepped back a bit to give the new mothers some room. "Actually, why don't we all head inside? It's warmer, and there's food, and everyone can meet the baby without giving them claustrophobia." Sheila suggested. The crowd buzzed with agreement and with that, she and everyone else scurried into the house.

Since the gender of the baby was still a mystery to everyone, the decorations that were strewn all over the house were all different shades of pink and blue. Instead of saying 'It's a girl' or 'It's a boy', any balloon hanging anywhere was purple and said 'It's a child!' Upon sight of the completely decked out house, Primrose and Heather's jaws dropped.

"Who did all this?" Primrose asked incredulously. 

Sheila, Primrose's two twin brothers, Alyssa (who was a friend of both women), and Heather's mom stepped out from the crowd of people who were still dispersing into the house. "All the decorations were ordered by yours truly," Sheila explained, "but these guys helped me put 'em all up. And mom made most of the food in the kitchen." She finished, gesturing to the four behind her. 

Heather, handing the baby off to her wife, smiled in awe. "Thank you guys so much for doing all of this. This must have been a real pain to set up."

Her mother cut in. "It was really no problem. It's not like you could've done all this in the hospital anyway. Besides, you two have a baby! What better excuse is there for a celebration? Speaking of the party, let's head to the back. Everyone's dying to hear about the baby!" 

Eventually, everyone meandered out to the living room. The kids took turns holding the baby and eating snacks, while the adults hung around Heather and Primrose, talking. While some of her friends hung around Heather asking questions about how she'd been since they last saw her, Primrose's brothers yanked her away from the crowd and into the foyer.

"When are you gonna tell us what the baby's name is?" Hunter, the older, asked.

"Yeah, we need to know so we can start thinking of puns of the name," Liam added.

"We need to be the coolest uncles ever," Hunter finished.

When Primrose didn't answer right away, because she was trying not to laugh at their reasoning, Liam leaned forward suspiciously. "Did you guys even _think_ of a name? I bet they don't even have a name." he patronized, shaking his head at his brother.

"Well, that just means _we'll_ have to name the baby! Let's go!" Hunter exclaimed, trying to take off back to the main room, with Liam turning on his heel to follow. "What's the gender?"

"Get back here, you heathens!" Primrose shouted, grabbing onto their shirts before they could go too far.

"Prim!" Heather called from the other room, "I don't want to do the name reveal without you!"

"Finally!" both boys yelled, squirming out of Primrose's grasp and sprinting to the living room, Primrose herself walking calmly behind them. It took a few long minutes of getting everyone in the same room for the name reveal, and even then some of the kids wandered off again, so they'd have to just hear it later. But for the most part, everyone gathered around in excitement.

"Well? What's the name?" one of Heather's cousins asked. Everyone in the room went very quiet as Heather and Primrose smirked at each other, holding the anticipation for just a little longer.

At last, the two women spoke up in unison. "Her name is Luna."

* * *

Hours later, the sun was setting, and the children had long since disappeared from the parents' supervision to play upstairs. Most of the parents and adults were outside in the backyard. Hunter, Liam, and their father were trying their best to make enough food on the grill to feed everyone without burning down the yard. So far, they were successful. In not burning the yard, that is, they burned plenty of the food. They probably would have given up by now, considering how much they burned, that is if their uncle Nathan hadn't brought out the booze. The boys by now had drunk so much that they insisted they could do anything, including make an edible dinner.

The boys weren't the only ones who'd decided to have a beer or four. Heather, who'd avoided alcohol since she first found out she was pregnant, had been offered a margarita by a few of her cousins. Those cousins, soon after she finished it, kept giving Heather various alcoholic drinks, and who was she to refuse her cousins who she hadn't seen in months?

Several drinks later she knew if she wasn't so tipsy she would wish she had refused a few. But in her defense, her wife, who was much better at telling people 'no', wasn't exactly much help. In fact, she was just as tipsy as Heather, if not worse.

"Ooh, Heather," Primrose suddenly exclaimed in the middle of telling a group of relatives the story about how the two picked Luna's name, "shouldn't we say who's Luna's godparents gonna be?" she finished, not caring how out of order her words came out.

The other woman nodded vigorously, then squeezed her eyes shut momentarily from the abrupt dizziness that came with the motion. A few others gathered around, hearing Primrose's announcement and deciding that they'd love to hear who'd be chosen, some even hoping they'd be the chosen one. Mumbles of drunken excitement rose around the couple as Primrose scooped up Luna in her arms, and everyone sat and stood around them.

"Can I be the godmother?" one cousin slurred.

"No you can't, you set your house on fire last year," another retorted. "You're too irresponsible."

"So? That was a year ago. I'm a changed woman." 

"YOU ARE STILL LIVING WITH _ME_ , BRENDA!"

Heather's sister cut in. "You two shut up, please. You're scaring the baby." Sheila wasn't exactly lying, as Luna's eyes were wider than usual, giving her a frightened appearance.

Primrose held up a hand, silencing the two arguing cousins. "Actually," she began, the word sounding all smushed together, "we think Alyssa should be her godmother. She's been with us through and through, she supported us, and she's great."

Alyssa, possibly the only completely sober person at that moment, teared up a bit as she thanked the mothers, and as everyone crowded around began applauding.

"Well, who'll be the godfather?" Primrose's father asked from behind a small flock of children who'd decided to take their game of tag downstairs.

"Not us!" Hunter yelled as him and his brother chased the kids around. He was, after all the one who instigated the game.

"We're settling for cool uncles!" Liam added, getting tagged by his cousin Leonard.

Several men throughout the crowd started talking and arguing that each of them were more worthy of being a godfather than everyone else. Some of the more wasted guys even started a brawl when they started insulting each others responsibility levels. In hindsight, that just made them seem more irresponsible, but they were too wasted to realize that.

Primrose looked upon the fight with an unamused expression, and Heather swung her arm in the general direction of the guys, saying "None of you are reliable enough for my child!" 

A few individuals in the crowd laughed at this due to the effects of too much alcohol, including Primrose, who then added "Hell, a literal God who's known for stupidity would be better suited than y'all!" which just yielded more laughter.

Heather's eyes widened as if realizing something, and staggered to where Primrose was standing. "Wouldn't be hilarious if wehad a real god as Luna's godfather though?"

It was that moment that her wife _actually snorted,_ which is something she'd never done in all the time they'd been together. 

"How about," Prim slurred through gasps of air, trying to compose herself long enough to get her point across, "what about Loki?"

"The Norse God?" Sheila wheezed. "Well he's not exactly the Patron Saint of Childcare, but..."

Heather raised her voice to yell at the still feuding guys "Still more responsible than y'all!" 

"Then it's settled!" A cousin in the crowd called.

Of course this just seemed like a big joke to everyone at the party. How were they to know that he was watching the whole scene play out from Asgard?

Just minutes before, Thor, Loki, and the Warriors Three had returned from Vanaheimr, positively spent from their adventures there. As the others decided to head back to the palace for some well-deserved rest, Heimdall requested Loki to stay back a minute, as he claimed there was a matter on Midgard concerning the young prince. Though he wanted nothing more than to return to his chambers and relax, Loki couldn't deny that Heimdall's words had piqued his interest. So with a brief farewell, Thor and his companions departed and began the journey down the Bifrost, leaving Loki to wonder what could possibly be happening on Midgard that required _his_ attention.

Using his power, with Heimdall guiding him to exactly where on Earth his attentions were needed, he watched the family's discussion with growing amusement. 

With a wave of his hand, the image of the Blackwood family and their celebration vanished, Loki's gaze drifting out to the vast void of space beyond the Bifrost.

"Well, isn't that something?" he murmured. He gave a parting nod to Heimdall, and began to leave, to head back to the palace. 

"What do you intend to do about this?" the gatekeeper asked, not in an accusatory tone, but he almost sounded as amused as Loki was. The prince paused in his tracks, mind wandering.

It was very obvious that they were intoxicated during the whole ordeal, and most likely wouldn't even remember their decision the next morning, but the way Loki saw it, they had chosen him nonetheless. Even if they didn't mean it as anything more than a means to have a good laugh, why not go along with it?

He turned to face Heimdall again, and met his gaze with a mischievous smirk.

"We shall see."


	2. Is It Considered Trespassing If You Have Custody?

Now, the first night with the newborn went without a hitch. Well, too many hitches at least.

Everyone went home after the party, some in a better state than others, save for Sheila who stayed the night with the two mothers so she could safely drive herself home the next morning. Luna went to bed that night easily, leaving Heather and Prim to clean up as quietly as two drunk people could. Of course, Heather's sister would've helped if she hadn't passed out on the couch the moment all the guests left the house.

Then came the morning after. Heather was the most hungover of the three, having not drank alcohol for nine months before last night, but all three women were still functional enough to go through the day. Sheila eventually got up and left, but not before insisting to make breakfast for her sister and Prim, and assuring that if they ever needed anything she'd gladly help out. 

After she finally went home, Prim went into work, leaving Heather to clean up everything they hadn't gotten the night before. Luna slept through most of the day, waking really only to cry a bit, have her diaper changed, and be fed. That was the daily routine of the first week or so.

The nights were a whole other matter. The first few nights were OK, but after about a week Luna would wake up at various times throughout the night, and refused to stop crying and sleep unless one of her parents woke up and nursed her back to sleep.

During that first week, Loki had important matters in Asgard that couldn't be ignored, but occasionally he'd use his magic to check how everything was going. Some nights he debated going down to try to calm Luna himself, but one of her mothers would always come in before he had the chance to get down to Earth. 

However, there's something to be said about three full weeks of choppy sleep schedules, and that's the fact that there comes a point where when you go out, you go out _hard._

What with Primrose working full time to cover for Heather having unpaid maternity leave, and Heather usually being the one woken up to handle the baby, there came one night when Luna woke up and began crying, but it wasn't enough to wake either of the exhausted mothers.

Fortunately for Luna, that was also a night when all was fine in Asgard and Loki had the night to do as he pleased. He had just been about to head to bed, but thought he ought to check on his goddaughter first. 

And good thing he did. He used his magic to look into Luna's nursery, and at first everything was fine, his goddaughter was sleeping peacefully. But just before he called it a night, Luna woke up and began crying. He waited a few moments for either Heather or Primrose to put her to rest as usual, and started to get concerned when they never did. 

Thus began the first of many times he'd end up helping the two mothers with raising Luna.

The Bifrost was definitely the easiest way to get to Midgard fast, but not exactly inconspicuous. Besides, Loki knew of other, quieter ways out of Asgard. After slipping out of the palace, down to the nearest hidden passage to Earth, Loki eventually wound up at the Blackwood residence.

Finding out the front door was locked, he circled the house to where Luna's nursery was.

The nursery room window was just open enough for him to get inside without too much noise. With a quick glance out the window to make sure he hadn't roused anyone's suspicion, which he hadn't, he turned to Luna's crib, where she lay swaddled in a onesie and still crying.

Gently lifting her out of the crib and securing her between his arm and chest, Loki softly whispered a string of "Shh, it's alright. You're alright." until Luna's consistent cries lessened to a few coos every couple seconds.

Once Luna had completely quieted down and resorted to just looking up at him with tired eyes, Loki created one of his clones to figure out why neither Prim nor Heather had answered their daughters cries. While his clone snuck around the house, Loki began shifting his weight from his heels to the balls of his feet, swaying back and forth to keep her from getting worked up again.

"It's alright now, you're safe. That's all you needed, to not be alone?" 

Luna clenched a little fist in response, not being able to do much more, to which Loki gave a soft chuckle.

"That's alright. You don't have to be alone."

After a few more moments of slowly rocking Luna side to side, his clone came back to the room, closing the door behind him. Loki used his free hand to wave his clone back to nonexistence with a quick green flash. 

On his venture around the house, Loki's clone had found the mothers bedroom door shut over, so he assumed Heather must've been sleeping soundly in there, and Primrose had passed out on the couch downstairs with the tv playing some reality show.

A sudden shift against him snapped his mind back to reality, and he looked downwards to see Luna snuggled against his chest. Her eyes slowly fell shut, not to open again that night. Loki cradled her for a minute longer to ensure she was truly asleep, then carefully placed her back in her crib. He adjusted her blanket so it covered her up to her neck, and snuck back out the window after a whispered "Sweet dreams, little one."

Not a sound was heard as he made his escape out the window, but he'd taken no more than a few steps away from the house before Heimdall opened the Bifrost to transport him back home. Under orders from Odin, of course.

Fortunately, everyone in the house stayed sound asleep throughout the ruckus outside, but needless to say Heather and Primrose were quite taken aback by the strange pattern etched into their lawn the next day. The complaint about all the noise the previous night from their neighbor was also confusing.

* * *

After several more nights of them not getting woken by Luna's crying and Loki covertly putting her back to rest, Prim and Heather realized that they weren't hearing her and discussed getting a baby monitor for Luna's room, feeling guilty about being so out of it that their daughter couldn't even wake them. 

"Alright, I agree. Should we get a video monitor, or will just a sound monitor be OK?" Heather asked across the coffee table, Luna breastfeeding in her arms.

"I think just a sound monitor should work for us. Our problem is not hearing her, not not seeing her." Prim responded, pulling up the prices of said items on her laptop. "Though if we end up having further problems, then we should invest in the full-on video one."

Heather sighed dejectedly at the phrase 'further problems', and Primrose looked up quizzically. "What? What's wrong?" 

"Just..." she began, readjusting her shirt now that Luna was finished eating. "I feel bad, you know?" 

Prim gave a sad smile, standing up and walking around the coffee table to sit next to her wife. "Look, we haven't even had Luna around for a month. We're still new at this, it's OK for us to make these little mistakes. Besides, our baby girl wouldn't want you to beat yourself up." She reached over and put her finger under Luna's bottom lip.

"Momma," Prim spoke in a higher, squeaky voice as she moved Luna's mouth around to give the appearance she was saying everything. "I forgive you, and I love you." 

Heather's face broke into a laugh. She looked to Prim and pulled her into a kiss, being careful not to squish their daughter between them. "Thanks babe," she murmured once they broke away. "And thank you too, my darling angel." Luna cooed at her mother in response. She handed Luna to Prim and stretched. "So how much is it for one of these things?"

"With the camera, about eighty dollars."

"Sweet mother of God," Heather groaned, her head rolling back. 

"Don't worry, without the camera it's only, like, thirty."

"I suppose that's slightly better. Shall we head out and get one then?"

Prim smiled and stood from the couch, Heather following suit shortly after. "Can we get Dunkin Donuts while we're out?"

Slipping her shoes on, Heather nodded. "Oh, _hell_ yes." 

* * *

Once they got the baby monitor, it was another month before they had any more problems. The monitor worked perfectly, and either Heather or Primrose would wake up as soon as Luna started crying so Loki didn't need to down to Midgard as much.

And then the batteries died.

And on such a bad night.

Heather had started working again, and Prim went back to doing just the day shifts at her job. Prim had been up nearly all night with Luna the night before, and Heather had to stay late to help close at the restaurant she worked at. So Prim was out like a broken light bulb, and Heather passed out the moment her head hit the pillow, so even if the batteries in the monitor were working, who knows if it would actually do its job.

It took nearly ten minutes of Luna laying there lonely until Loki realized what was going on. After that first night, he'd decided he'd stick with teleportation as his way to and from the Blackwood residence. It was much faster than the secret pathways off Asgard, and altogether silent.

Materializing in the corner of Luna's nursery, he sent a disapproving glance at the pathetic machine on the dresser as he went across the room to pick up the still-crying baby.

"They thought that tiny little machine would solve all their problems, hmm?" he chuckled quietly, beginning to shift his weight back and forth carefully. "Well, you showed them." 

Unlike the previous nights of simply rocking her back to sleep, nothing Loki had usually done was calming her down enough to stop crying. For a moment his brow furrowed as he pondered what he could do.

Then an idea presented itself. A distant memory, one that hadn't surfaced in so long it had almost been forgotten, etched itself to the forefront of his mind. Though the memory was faded, he could distinctly remember the lullaby his mother would sing to him when he was a child, young and restless like the baby in his arms now.

Trying to remember the lyrics as best he could, Loki lifted and positioned Luna so she lay between his right arm and his chest, and began softly singing as though not to wake either mother.

_"You're in my arms  
And all the world is calm  
The music playing on for only two  
So close together  
And when I'm with you  
So close to feeling alive"_

As he sung, he used his free hand to gently wipe the stream of tears off Luna's cheek, and her crying seemed to slow ever so slightly.

_"A life goes by  
But all those dreams must die  
So I bid my goodbye  
And never knew  
So close, was waiting  
Waiting here with you  
And now, forever I know  
All that I wanted  
To hold you so close"_

He continued, and soon enough Luna had completely stopped crying. She looked up at Loki, eyes wide and wondering.

_"So close to reaching  
That famous happy end  
Almost believing  
This one's not pretend  
And now you're beside me  
And look how far we've come  
So far we are, so close"_

__Using his magic and his free hand, he looked upwards and cast an illusion on the ceiling, enchanting it to look like the night sky. Hundreds of stars gazed down upon the two, reflecting back in Luna's eyes when she glanced at what Loki had done. Supporting her head with his arm, Loki tilted her back to give her a better view, and slowly swayed back and forth.

_"Oh, how could I face the faceless days  
If I should lose you now"_

Luna let out a soft coo, her arm jerking upward as if to grab a star, and Loki raised his voice as he continued singing, losing himself in the moment.

_"We're so close to reaching  
That famous happy end  
Almost believing  
This one's not pretend  
Let's go on dreaming  
For we know we are"_

Loki held his hand out further, summoning a small dark orb the shade of night, speckled with twinkling stars, holding it close to Luna. He looked down at her again to see her eyes widen further at what had just been presented, and a fond smile spread across his face.

_"So close, so close  
And still so far"_

With that last line, he languidly closed his fingers around the sphere, making it dissipate along with the illusion above them. Luna blinked back to reality, gazing up at her godfather in complete awe. Loki reached up to cradle the side of her head, gingerly stroking her temple until she finally sank back to sleep.

As he set her back down in her crib, Loki decided it would be smart to send one of his clones to check that neither Heather or Primrose had awoken at his singing. Once he was sure the two were asleep, he went to teleport back to Asgard for the night. He briefly considered changing the batteries in the monitor, but thought against it, finding himself wanting another reason to visit his goddaughter. 

Besides, he would have to snoop through the Blackwood's house to find new batteries, and even the God of Mischief has a moral compass. He vanished in a flash of shimmery green, once again leaving Luna's parents none the wiser.

And if the next morning Heather and Prim awoke under the impression that the other had taken care of Luna when she woke up, still believing that their 'baby monitor plan' was working perfectly? Loki certainly didn't mind having to travel back to Midgard the next night to sing the lullaby again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: The 'lullaby' Loki sang is [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UtnXJy5b5I) from the movie Enchanted. I just thought it was a pretty song that could be used for a lullaby, since I couldn't really make up my own.


	3. Just Your Average Family Reunion, Though It's More Of A Family Union Cause They've Never Met Before

But Heather and Prim aren't stupid.

It took about two weeks of Loki singing Luna to sleep every few nights before it started getting suspicious. The few nights they awoke before Loki got there, it would be more and more difficult to get her back to sleep. Eventually they found out singing to her seemed to be the only way to help her settle down anymore, but they chalked it up to the fact that they listened to a lot of music and Luna must get a sense of comfort listening to it. They truly couldn't be further from the truth, but how were they to know? 

As for the sudden lack of hearing her crying at night again, they hoped and assumed that Luna was growing out of it. That is, until Prim went into the nursery one day to find out...

"Looks like we'll be needing Double A batteries," Prim said as the turned the corner into the living room, waggling the dead baby monitor back and forth in her hand.

Heather, sitting on the floor in front of Luna, raised her brow in understanding.

"That explains so much." She turned back to her daughter, who was laying on her back with a tiny, gummy smile on her face. "Did you know it was dead? Hmm?" she cooed in a high voice, tapping Luna on the nose with her finger and sending the baby into hysterics. "Did you forget to tell us to get new batteries?" 

Prim watched the two loves of her life fondly, a grin adorning her own face. "I hate to break this up darling, but do you want to go pick up the batteries now before you have to go into work?" Heather looked back up at her after blowing a raspberry on Luna's tummy, making her laugh even harder.

"Sounds like a plan. Wanna grab some dinner while we're out?"

Prim walked over and kneeled down next to Heather. "I'd like nothing better," she said, kissing Heather on the cheek. She then reached down to Luna and tickled the spot her wife had just blown on. "You wanna go out tonight, little angel?" Both Prim and Heather beamed at Luna's contagious laughter that sounded at the action. "I'll take that as a yes."

Heather picked Luna up off the floor, settling her on her hip as she slid her shoes on. Primrose grabbed her purse and the keys, and soon enough Luna was strapped in her carseat as they drove to the nearest shopping plaza. Prim, sitting in the passenger seat, flicked the radio on and turned the volume up slightly when she recognized Guns 'N Roses playing. Her wife snickered a little when Prim started singing along.

"You and your rock music," she sighed, shaking her head fondly.

Prim abruptly stopped singing and turned to face her. "Laugh all you want but this song totally fits for our daughter, and I love it." She looked back at Luna and kept singing along to the radio. 

_"She's got eyes of the bluest skies  
As if they thought of rain  
I'd hate to look into those eyes  
And see an ounce of pain"_

Taking a quick glance at the backseat through the front mirror, Heather agreed. "She does have very blue eyes, I'll give you that. They're darker though, like yours."

Prim nodded smugly, turning back in her seat. "Yup."

They continued driving along, and an ACDC song followed the commercial that played after Guns 'N Roses. Heather glanced down at the radio to see her wife had it set to an alternative rock station. "You're gonna turn her into a metal-head," she joked.

"You live a lie if you think that's a bad thing."

* * *

After getting enough batteries to last a year and eating dinner at a fancy Italian place, Heather pulled up in front of the restaurant she worked at and parked the car. "See you tonight," she said, grabbing her purse from the backseat and giving her wife a brief kiss. Looking behind her, she uttered a hurried goodbye to Luna, and rushed out of the car to ensure she wouldn't be late for work. As soon as the restaurant door closed behind her, Prim took her place in the drivers seat.

"What do you say we go walk through the park for a bit before we head home?" 

Luna gurgled excitedly in response. 

So for the next hour Prim carried Luna on her hip around the nearby park until the sun began setting and Luna fell asleep. 

While Prim drove back home, with her daughter sleeping soundly to quietly playing rock music, Loki was sneaking away from a crowd of people.

Him and Thor had been requested to visit Vanaheimr again as sort of a follow-up to their last visit those three months ago. The people of the realm had set up something of a welcoming ceremony for the princes arrival. As the sun set on the horizon, people hung around socializing, and Loki decided to promptly exit the social scene. He weaseled his way through the many bunches of people who were still conversing until he found himself in a nearby meadow, in an area shrouded in shadow just enough for his black-and-green-leather-clad figure to be practically invisible.

Once he was finally out of the way and attentions of the Vanaheimrians, Loki gazed up at the darkening sky, watching as the stars slowly twinkled into existence. His mind wandered, his thoughts soon turning to the night he first started singing the old lullaby to Luna. After that night, he'd asked Frigga about the lyrics she used to sing to him, and was pleased when he found he'd remembered it near perfectly. 

He held out his hand, creating the small illusion allowing him to check on his goddaughter, and saw Primrose had just put her down in her crib and was leaving the room with a softly whispered "Goodnight, little angel." 

At that moment, Loki felt the presence of someone coming up behind him. Clenching his fist to make the illusion disappear, he swiveled around to face the party, and who'd been looking for him.

"Sneaking off again, brother?" Thor's voice called out across the remaining space between him and Loki. He wore a vaguely amused expression as he came to stand in front of his brother. 

"Of course not." Loki brushed his question off smoothly. "Did you really think you could sneak up on me?"

"I've done it once, I could do it again. You recall that journey to Niflheim last century?" 

"Never happened," Loki deadpanned. "No matter now. What do you mean 'again', when have I abandoned my responsibilities in other realms before?"

"I can regale you with _plenty_ of examples," Thor laughed. "But I don't mean other realms. You've been slipping away from Asgard to Odin-knows-where constantly over the past few months. Not using the Bifrost, which is rather suspicious."

"Thor, don't swear on our father. When the humans who worship us do so it's acceptable, but it's weird when you do it."

Although Thor did laugh at his admonishing, Loki's attempt to change the subject didn't work much further than that. 

"Alright, fine. But seriously, where do you go?"

Loki's jaw tensed a bit. He'd nearly forgotten he never told Thor about that night at the Blackwood's and its outcome. He was almost tempted to continue keeping it secret, to have something special for himself, since so many things had been revolving around his brother recently. But on the other hand, the concept of being named someone's godfather was pretty fantastic, and well worth sharing.

"If you must know, these past months I've been tending to personal matters on Midgard." A slow smile spread across his face as he spoke. Holding his hand out between them, he recreated the window of magic to show Luna sleeping peacefully in her crib. "This is my goddaughter." 

Thor's expression lit up in excitement. "That's incredible! Congratulations! When did this happen?" He listened as Loki told him about the party, and laughed along at their reasoning for the decision. "You mean to tell me that they picked you because of a pun?"

"It would seem that way, yes. But either way, they did choose me. So I've been taking the situation seriously."

"I'm proud of you. Although I can't believe you never told me about this!"

"Well in my defense, you really have been rather busy to talk to," Loki countered.

Thor looked back into the illusion. "Would it be alright if I could meet the girl?"

Loki smirked, swiping his arm to the side and making the vision dissipate. "Perhaps you could." The two fell into an expectant silence for a moment. "Wait, now?" he asked, raising his brow.

"Why not?"

"Why not? We're needed here, not all the way down in Midgard," Loki explained obviously. 

"We can be in and out. You've not been using the Bifrost so clearly you have a quick, easier way of getting there. Besides, they don't seem to mind we're not with them now," Thor reasoned, referring to the Vanaheimrians who'd for the most part all turned in for the night. 

"I see that, and yes, I've been teleporting to and from Earth, which is easier and quieter than the Bifrost. But I don't know how kindly Luna's parents will take to two demigods appearing in their house unannounced in regards to their daughter." 

"You've been showing up in regards to their daughter." Thor reminded. Loki just looked at him blankly, not letting on that he was actually right about that. "I see your point. I promise I won't keep us too long. It'll be like we were never there."

The younger prince sighed, considering all Thor had said. "You're adamant about this?" he asked. His brother nodded, of course he'd love to meet this new practically-family member. "Alright. You better not give me reason to regret this. Keep quiet, and don't meddle with anything."

With a brief glance back to the party area they were supposed to be at to ensure no one was still out to see them leave, Loki placed a hand on Thor's shoulder and used his magic.

They squeezed their eyes shut as they rematerialized and when they opened them again, they stood outside Luna's nursery window.

"This... Doesn't look like..." 

"Kindly shut up." Loki interrupted. The second time he used his magic, the two appeared in the room, in front of the window they were just outside of. "I normally only teleport myself," he explained simply, breathing heavily. Getting from Vanaheimr to Midgard was a much longer journey than getting there from Asgard, and he had an extra passenger this time, so the effort was understandably tiring.

A soft babble noise from the crib distracted both their attentions.

"I suppose we woke her up," Loki mused, his voice dropped to a whisper, knowing even with the baby monitor being dead, Prim could still hear them since she was still awake.

Of course, his information was just a few minutes outdated since Prim put new batteries in the machine before putting Luna in the crib.

The two demigods looked from said crib to each other.

"Well, go on, you're the reason we're here," Loki prompted, walking silently over to the crib, Thor following behind less silently out of excitement. 

Luna, laying facing away from the two, craned her neck to look up. Her eyes crinkled as she grinned up at her godfather and cooed happily. Gently shushing her and lifting her up to sit against his hip, Loki turned to his brother. "Her name is Luna." 

The baby leaned her head on Loki's chest, as though expecting him to sing again. As she did so, she noticed Thor and let out an interested coo. 

"Hush now, little one," Loki whispered, smiling at her playfully, and yet also somewhat seriously. "We're not here to sing to you tonight, my brother here wanted to meet you." 

"Hello, little Luna. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." Thor greeted, sending a peevish look up to his brother at the end, a silent 'took long enough' that Loki just rolled his eyes at. Then Loki's words clicked in his mind. "You sing to her?" he asked, surprised.

The younger nodded, looking back to his goddaughter as he answered. "As of recently. It seems to be the only thing that will calm her down enough to sleep these days." 

Thor almost looked impressed for some reason.

"Don't look so surprised," Loki said in his normal voice rather than whispering.

"No, it's just I didn't know you could sing," Thor explained, also forgetting to lower his voice. His brother shrugged, paying more attention to the conversation and the slow side-to-side swaying he was doing for Luna to mind being quiet.

"You never asked. That, and I don't just go around singing for anybody, I have a reputation." A slight smirk grew across his face as Luna reached an arm towards Thor and let out a little squeal. "Do you want to hold her for a bit?" 

"I'd love to!" Thor held his arms out as Loki carefully set Luna down so that she rested between Thor's forearm and torso. 

"Be careful. Humans are incredibly fragile, especially as children," Loki warned softly. 

Just then, the nursery door burst open, and both demigods whirled around, startled. Luna smiled and happily squealed when she saw Primrose, who moments ago realized that the muffled talking was in fact _not_ coming from the tv show she'd been watching and came up to investigate, standing in the doorway. 

Her jaw dropped upon seeing these two strangers cradling her child. "What the f...!?" The swear died on her tongue as Loki thrust his hand out toward her, using a quick spell to render her unconscious. She collapsed on the floor face-up with an unpleasant thud, and both Thor and Loki winced.

For a minute, the room was silent, and the brother exchanged wide-eyed glances. Even Luna looked slightly concerned.

"Well, this is problematic," Loki muttered.

"I'll say. That fall sounded painful."

"No, not that. Her being here is the problem."

"Why?" Thor asked, deciding to put Luna back in her crib. As he let her go, her arms shot back up and she cooed in protest, still wanting to be held, but Thor was preoccupied with questioning his brother. "She's Luna's mother, right? She knows you're her godfather and you help out with Luna." 

"She knows I'm her godfather, yes."

Thor raised an eyebrow. "Loki, her parents know you come down to Midgard to see Luna, right?"

Loki's mouth thinned to a straight line and he nodded. "They know I'm her godfather."

Sighing deeply, Thor rubbed a hand over his face, disappointed, but honestly not surprised. "Loki..."

"Don't do that. Most Midgardians don't even think we exist, you really think they'd believe this situation?"

"You gave me a hard time about 'showing up unannounced' when you've been doing exactly that the whole time?" 

Loki tilted his head, looking offended. "Oh yes, 'excuse me ma'am, you know that mythical demigod you named the godfather of your child? Not only is he very much real, he's been breaking into your house and singing your daughter to sleep for three months and just forgot to tell you.' That would go over swell." 

During the rant, Luna had started crying, and once he was finished monologuing, Loki picked her back up and held her to his chest. "Shh, darling, it's alright. It's OK."

"What are we going to do? We can't just leave this lady like this," Thor insisted.

"What do you propose we do? Drag her downstairs, wipe her memory, and pretend this never happened?"

Thor simply raised his brow in response, figuring that was a good a plan as any. 

"Right." Loki sighed, using the same spell he'd used on Prim to put Luna in a peaceful sleep. After tucking her back into the crib for the last time that night, Loki gestured to the unconscious body on the floor. "I'll lift her by her arms. You get her ankles."

With little difficulty, other than nearly dropping her down the stairs once, the princes successfully brought Primrose into the living room. They laid her down on the couch across from the tv and heaved a sigh of relief.

"Should we keep the... the box on?" Thor asked quietly, pointing to the tv.

"We ought to. We don't want to leave any more traces of being here." Loki circled the couch and sat on the coffee table in front of it. "Now, I can't exactly erase the memory of tonight. Not without consequences. But I can alter the memory."

Placing a hand over Prim's forehead, he closed his eyes and focused on only changing the last few minutes in her mind. After a few seconds, he looked back up at his brother. "We should go before her wife gets back and we get in more trouble." 

Without waiting for an answer, Loki reached up and grabbed Thor's arm, using the last of his energy to bring them back to the field in Vanaheimr. Positively exhausted, he nearly collapsed on the ground himself, being steadied in the nick of time by his brother.

"Speaking of trouble," the older began, "how much do you want to wager Heimdall was watching this whole escapade and is now reporting it to our father?"

"Don't even bring that up now," Loki responded between heavy breaths. "Let's just get back, and not sneak away for the rest of the trip."

And that's what they did. A few hours later, back in Earth, Heather had taken a late taxi home, tired from her work shift. The noise of her unlocking and entering the house roused Prim from her slumber.

"...uck!?" she exclaimed, jolting upright. Heather, a little startled, rushed into the living room.

"You OK, baby?" she asked, concern donning her face.

Looking around, a bit confused as to where she was, Prim nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, just..." she trailed off, gazing up into her wife's eyes. "I had the strangest dream."


	4. Four Times Loki Low-Key Helped Raise Luna, And One Time That Changed Everything (Part 1)

Thor had been right on one account; Heimdall had been watching the whole time. In fact, he found it highly amusing. After the princes returned to Asgard, the gatekeeper made a deal with them that he wouldn't report their absence in Vanaheimr to Odin if Thor and Loki didn't make it a habit of abandoning their responsibilities.

And the princes held true to the deal.

After that night, the midnight visits became much less frequent. That's not to say Loki stopped dropping by, it was only on the nights when he was positive that blasted baby monitor was dead. Which didn't come often, seeing as Heather and Primrose were very good about changing the batteries when needed. But when those nights did come around, Loki was sure not to miss them.

**_(2007)_ **

Luckily, Luna did eventually grow out of waking up at night crying, so Heather and Prim decided the monitor wasn't needed anymore and sold it on eBay. Which was rather helpful considering that now that Luna could talk, it's all she wanted to do when Loki came to visit. 

"My... 'gah-far-r'." 

"Not quite, no." Loki's previous attempts to help Luna say 'godfather' correctly had gone similar ways to this one. Saying words with sounds like 'th' and 'ch' were proving difficult for her two-year-old vocabulary, so she opted to just cut them out completely. "'Godfather'." 

"'Gah-fahhh-rer,'" she tried again, giggling quietly.

"No, darling." Loki said, shaking his head. "Try one more time. 'Godfather'."

"No. You sing song?" Luna asked hopefully.

Loki peered out the window, figuring he should have enough time to do so. It was very early in the morning, so both mothers were still fast asleep down the hall. But he did have to get back to Asgard soon. He hadn't had anything to do when he'd left to come down to Earth, but there were plans for him and Thor that morning he'd need to prepare for. 

"Alright. Get into bed first."

Happily, Luna flopped down onto the bed, grabbing a stuffed animal as she stopped bouncing and laid down properly. Tucking her under her blankets, Loki sat on the edge of the bed, facing his goddaughter.

"I'll only do a little bit, because I must be getting back home."

Luna nodded understandingly, holding her stuffed animal close as she yawned. 

_"A life goes by  
But all those dreams must die  
So I bid my goodbye  
And never knew  
So close, was waiting  
Waiting here with you  
And now, forever I know  
All that I wanted  
To hold you so close"_

As he sang, Luna held the stuffed animal with one hand, and shifted to snuggle against Loki, stifling another yawn. He smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, carrying on with the song quietly.

_"So close to reaching  
That famous happy end  
Almost believing  
This one's not pretend  
And now you're beside me  
And look how far we've come  
So far we are, so close"_

With a flick of his wrist, he shut the bedroom lights off as his singing came to a halt. He made sure to keep the nightlight dimly lit, since Luna wasn't exactly fond of the dark. 

Having nearly fallen asleep during the lullaby, she stirred tiredly when Loki retracted his arm and went to stand up. 

"I'm afraid I have to go now, Luna," he whispered.

"Come back 'morrow?" she asked, laying back on her pillow while Loki readjusted her blanket.

"Maybe not tomorrow, but I'll come back soon. I promise." 

As he stood to leave, Luna grabbed the paw of her stuffed animal and waved it back and forth. "G'night night," she mumbled, her eyes drooping closed. 

With a hushed "Goodnight" back and a flash of green, Loki vanished back to Asgard.

Breakfast the next morning went fairly normal until Luna asked out of the blue "Where daddy go?"

Following a confused silence and a long while convincing Luna that she didn't have a daddy, Heather and Prim chalked it up to her having an imaginary friend of sorts.

If only they knew how wrong they were.

**_(2008)_ **

"Shit, shit, shit, no no no," Alyssa cursed under her breath, weaving around clusters of people, frantically searching everywhere. A nice day out with her goddaughter, that's all she wanted. But nope, of course the time she has a chance to do something fun with Luna, she loses her in a crowd at a festival. She called out for her again, not surprised but growing increasingly worried when Luna didn't answer. 

Though there was no way she would know to answer, since she was trying to find Alyssa on the other side of the festival to no avail.

"'Lyssa? 'Lyssa?" she called, looking up desperately at anyone she passed. Vendor after vendor she passed, and with each one a worse realization that she was lost. 

Tears filled her eyes and threatened to spill when she looked up at another person she passed to see someone she recognized.

"'Gah-dad'?" she asked quietly, sniffling back her tears. 

Loki, who'd been browsing at a vendor, looked over and kneeled down to better face his crying goddaughter. "Luna, darling, what's the matter?" He scanned the area they were in. "Where are your parents?"

Taking a deep breath, Luna tried to explain through her sniffles. "'Lyssa and me came here to play, an' I saw a rock, an' I picked it up, an' then I go to show 'Lyssa but she lost an' I can't find her." Still trying to keep her cries in, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, silvery pebble with golden flecks embedded in various places. "I just wanted to give 'Lyssa it cause it's pretty like her." As she finished, her voice broke and she grabbed onto Loki, letting her tears fall. 

It took the demigod a moment to work out that 'Lyssa' meant Alyssa, who now that he heard the name, he remembered as the young woman Heather and Primrose had named Luna's godmother those years ago. A few passersby glanced down at Luna sympathetically before continuing on their business while Loki returned the girls hug.

"Alright, shh, it's OK. I can help you find her," he said once Luna calmed down a little.

She gave another sniffle, and pulled away, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. "You can?"

"Of course." Loki nodded. He only vaguely remembered what she looked like, but he had someone who knew exactly who she was standing right in front of him. How hard could it be?

It turned out to be rather hard, actually, considering that they and the fretting godmother were on exact opposite sides of the festival. The search ultimately took half an hour, five of those minutes being used to comfort Luna again when she resumed her panicking. The sky had turned a rosy tint by the time Luna caught sight of Alyssa speaking to one of the festivals security guards, pleading for help with her own search.

"'Lyssa!" Luna shrieked joyously, letting go of Loki's hand, which she'd previously been holding, and sprinting as fast as her little legs would take her.

Snapping her head to the side, Alyssa heaved a sigh of relief, squatting down to envelope Luna in her arms when she neared.

"Are you alright? Where have you been?" she demanded, pulling away and looking her goddaughter up and down, searching for injuries or anything wrong. At that moment she noticed Loki standing behind their goddaughter. She stood up slowly, being sure to hold Luna's hand in her own as to not lose her again. "You're... You helped her find me?"

The demigod cocked his head to the side slightly. "I did my best, though I can't take credit. She's the one who found you," he answered simply, gesturing to the now smiling girl.

Alyssa readjusted her glasses, and moved forward enough to grasp Loki's hand in her free one. "Thank you so, so much," she breathed, a watery smile spreading across her face. "Really, I can't tell you how grateful I am."

Giving her hand a gentle squeeze before retracting his arm, Loki responded. "It's my pleasure. I'm glad I could be of assistance."

Alyssa's next words were cut off by Luna wrapping her arms around his leg in an attempted hug.

"Thank you, 'gah-dad'." she whispered. 

Loki smiled back, looking back up to Alyssa. "If you'll excuse me, I really must be going. Have a good night," he said, glancing up at the sky, realizing that it was getting late. Luna pulled away, and both her and her godmother waved goodbye as he turned and walked away to find a secluded place to vanish back to Asgard.

He took a look behind him before doing so to see Luna presenting the silver pebble to Alyssa with a proud grin, and Alyssa smiling fondly back at her.

**_(2009)_ **

"If you're going to accompany me on my trips to Earth, you at least need to put an effort into being less conspicuous." Loki chided his brother as they stood inside a modern clothing store. Loki himself had long since learned that his royal Asgardian attire wasn't really suitable for visits to Earth, and had taken to wearing elegant suits whenever he came to visit Luna.

Thor, who didn't visit Midgard nearly as much as his brother did, didn't get the gist that his usual clothes were less than casual. So Loki insisted he make an attempt to blend in, so to speak, before they went to see Luna that night.

Unfortunately, that attempt to blend in wasn't going well so far, seeing as they'd been wandering the streets in broad daylight trying to find the store. And for the entirety of the time they'd been browsing in said store, they'd gotten plenty more strange looks from the employees and other customers.

Several rejected outfit choices later, Thor settled on a solid red t-shirt and a pair of jeans that would be considered a bit too tight by any onlookers.

"Oh good lord," Loki muttered with a slight eye roll when Thor walked out of the dressing room.

"I don't see why you couldn't just conjure up an outfit with your magic for me." 

"My magic isn't, as the humans say, a 'band-aid solution'. It can't just solve all your problems whenever you wish. And there's no way in all nine realms I'm letting you wander the planet wearing nothing but one of my illusions." 

A nearby customer furrowed their brow, giving the princes a confused and somewhat concerned sideways glance.

Thor reemerged from the dressing room a moment later with his usual clothes on his body, and the Midgardian outfit draped over his arm. "What next?"

Summoning a fifty dollar bill between his fingers, Loki said rather obviously, "We pay for the outfit and continue on our way." 

Seeing, but not believing, the money just appear, the nosy customer decided that 11:32am was a perfectly reasonable time to go home and drink a whole bottle of vodka, and left the store.

Thor narrowed his eyes at his brother as they approached the front of the store to check out. "So making a better outfit is too much but you can purchase one with false currency with no problem?"

"I'm the god of mischief, not fashion design. Besides, if they didn't want otherworldly beings to recreate their currency, they wouldn't have made it so easy to do so."

When they reached the cash register, the young man running it gave Thor a quick once-over and assumed that he was a cosplayer for a fandom he wasn't in as he scanned the clothes. Loki handed over the fifty, paying no mind to the $27.56 blinking on the cash register.

"Just keep the change," he said.

The cashier's jaw dropped, and he managed to stutter out a surprised "Thank you!"

After Thor went back to the changing rooms and put on the outfit, Loki used a spell to transport the Asgardian clothes back to said realm, and they left. 

"So," Thor began as they walked down the street "what do you propose we do until nightfall?"

"Lunch perhaps? We're already here, we might as well stay and see what this part of the realm has to offer."

The acceptance to the suggestion got cut off when Loki felt a sharp tug on the tail of his suit. He spun around on his heel, his eyes meeting familiar blue ones.

" _Luna?_ " 

The girl smiled back up at him, throwing her arms around his leg in a hug while Thor and Loki exchanged surprised expressions.

"Hi goddad!" Her eyes widened when she looked over to see Thor there as well. "Your brother's here!" she exclaimed, pointing at him excitedly.

"Yes. Yes, but what are _you_ doing here?" Loki said, snapping out of the surprise first. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

Luna's demeanor changed and she looked somewhat saddened. "Yeah. But the kids are mean. Grown-ups don't care, so I left." 

The princes faces fell, and they glanced back at each other again.

"Can I go with you?" Luna asked, gripping onto Loki's wrist. "Please, please, please?"

"I suppose you can," he agreed slowly, still somewhat taken aback. "We're off to get lunch, if you really want to join us."

"Yay!" Her smile returned as she moved so she held onto Loki's hand, and began skipping down the sidewalk, both demigods quickly following.

They walked for a while in silence, Thor and Loki both looking for what seemed like a suitable restaurant and contemplating the situation.

"So, are we going to bring her home after lunch?" Thor broke said silence, to which Loki shook his head.

"Probably best to bring her back to the school, actually. Her mothers usually pick her up from there in the afternoon, if she's not there I imagine they'd get worried."

Thor nodded thoughtfully. "Good point. Where is this school, and when does she have to be back there?"

"Nowhere near this part of the city, which is why I'm shocked she managed to get all the way here to find us. As for your other question, I believe the school dismisses at -" 

His words were cut off by Luna letting out a yelp.

"Wait!" The three of them stopped suddenly, right in front of a four-way intersection. "Look both ways before crossing the road! That's what Momma says!"

After an exaggerated head turn to look down each street, she proceeded to pull Loki across the crosswalk.

"It dismisses at one-thirty, I believe," he finished.

Thor, not accustomed to Midgardian time, raised a confused eyebrow.

"In two hours," Loki clarified.

"OK. I assume you'll be able to teleport us there when we need to go?"

"Ah, we'll see. The last time I transported more than one person was when she was a baby," he said, nodding his head towards Luna. "As you well remember."

A few minutes later, the three wound up in a small, homey cafe. Luna happily munched on a strawberry decorated pancake while the princes enjoyed a plate of crepes. Ain't nothing wrong with breakfast for lunch. 

After their meal, they decided to head to the park before bringing Luna back to school.

"How long have the other kids in your school been bothering you?" Loki inquired as they walked, to which Luna shrugged halfheartedly.

"Long time. I asked them to stop." She looked up at Loki with pleading eyes, as if he could take care of her bullies with a wave of his hand. And technically he could, but he'd learned that that was highly frowned upon in Midgard. 

"Hmm," Thor wondered aloud, "I take it this planet has different ways to settle arguments than we did on Asgard?" 

"Yes, I believe the custom here is to verbally discuss minor issues rather than engage in weapon-to-weapon combat. Though, from what I've learned here, humans do occasionally settle larger problems using similar methods." 

Thor nodded in reply.

"Look, Luna," Loki went on, "when you go back, don't be afraid to stand against them. And if they still don't back down, you can ask your family to help you rather than running away."

"You my family too," Luna pointed out. Before Loki could say anything in response, Luna continued. "But you better cause you have magic. Like a fairy 'godmoh-ver'. I asked Mommy, she says fairy 'godmoh-vers' can be boys, so you like my fairy goddaddy."

They rounded the next turn leading into the park.

"Err, not exactly," Loki demurred. He didn't miss Thor stifle a laugh behind his hand, and he mentally vowed that if it wasn't illegal in this realm, Thor would be getting a prompt stabbing right then. Luna simply kept skipping along the sidewalk happily until they reached an area of the park with a bench the princes sat at while Luna ran around in the field. 

For a while, Luna contentedly played out in the fields, making little dolls out of sticks and flowers she found and acting out stories with them, but she eventually got tired of doing so. Which is how Loki wound up braiding Luna's hair while him and Thor told her stories of their life in Asgard. (And if the two brothers bickered every other story about how something actually happened, what of it?)

Loki also told Thor about a few Midgardian things he'd learned over his frequent visits, each new fact or story causing his brother to either laugh, or respond with an incredulous _"What?"_

Eventually though, the brothers had to approach a passing human and ask for the time, which turned out to be 1:22. With some initial reluctance from Luna, Loki managed to convince her that it was time to get ready to go by agreeing to her insistence that she get to keep one of the stick dolls with her.

"Now since I don't know exactly where were going, in order to go back I'll need you to think very hard about your school so I can transport us there," he said once Luna had picked out her favorite doll and joined the princes back by the bench. The raven haired girl nodded and scrunched up her face as she pictured the building. Gently, Loki put a hand over her forehead, tapping into her mind to figure out how to get to the school. With his other hand, he grabbed Thor's wrist and concentrated on transporting all three of them to the area in Luna's mind.

A teenage human who'd happened to be walking by when they vanished paused right in their tracks, wide-eyed and swearing in shock. 

The three reappeared moments later in the middle of an empty hallway, one that made the princes look around in confusion, and Luna frown.

"Here we are," she said glumly.

"Oh."

"Did you mean to put us in the middle of the building?" Thor asked.

Loki shook his head. "No, but it will suffice." He then looked back down at Luna. "Your mothers will be here to bring you home in a few minutes, alright?" 

His goddaughter reached over and hugged him. "See you again soon?"

"Of course," he said, returning the gesture. "Remember what we talked about. And if even your mothers can't help you with them, I won't hesitate to come down and assist you myself."

Pulling away with a toothy smile, Luna turned to find her classroom, yelling a "Bye bye!" over her shoulder. 

The second after she disappeared around a corner is when the school bell rang, and the princes managed to teleport out of the realm just before the hall flooded with kindergartners. 

Not that a discreet departure really mattered, since the security cameras mounted to the wall had recorded their quick escape, and was witnessed the following week when some staff members had to go over the security footage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued next chapter.


	5. Four Times Loki Low-Key Helped Raise Luna, And One Time That Changed Everything (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continued from the last chapter.

**_(2010)_ **

Now, this time he came to Earth, it was purely self indulgent. He'd figured that since he was playing such a big part in a Midgardians upbringing, he should learn a bit more about the realm. Such quest led him to the library, and led to him sitting in a reading nook reading as much as he could find.

So he was genuinely startled when he felt a poke on his shoulder after several hours of uninterrupted reading. 

"Hi, goddaddy," Luna whispered in that really loud, forced-whisper voice. 

The initial alarm caved to pleasant surprise when he recognized who it was.

"Hello, Luna," he greeted in a much quieter whisper. Summoning a bookmark between his fingers, he placed it on the page he had been reading and set aside the book. 

"Mommy said I can stay in the grown ups section if I be quiet," she informed, still in the loud whisper. She then pointed at the book laying on the seat next to him. "What're you reading?" 

"A book about your planet's past," Loki answered. Luna looked somewhat interested until he added, "a lot of it is incorrect." After that, she was full-on interested.

"Why?"

"Well, I would guess because the people who wrote it don't know the truth behind these certain events," he explained. "Unlike me, they weren't there when they happened."

Luna's eyes widened. "You were there?" She smiled, impressed, when Loki nodded in confirmation. "So what is the truth behind?" Sitting next to him in the nook, she listened intently as he quietly told her how he, and sometimes his brother, were partially responsible for quite a few things that ended up going down in history. He did refrain from telling her about what Thor and he referred to as The Mishap Of 1865. 

Now, what happened in 1865 wasn't his fault necessarily, but he may or may not have accidentally helped 'The Mishap' happen by way of what was a simple misinterpretation at the time. He and Thor don't talk about it anymore. 

As he finished telling his third story, Luna quietly interrupted. "Why can't you come home?" 

His next words died in his throat, and he looked down at his goddaughter. 

"We have an empty room you can sleep at. You can stay with me and Momma and Mommy."

Loki smiled sadly. "I'm afraid I can't, Luna."

"Why not?" 

He pursed his lips before answering, figuring out how best to word it. "Your people, humans, most of them don't believe I'm real. Neither me nor my brother."

"But you are real."

"Yes, but I feel I've put off letting your family know that for too long. That if I were to finally tell your mothers, they would... turn me away." 

Luna looked away for a moment, puzzled. "So Momma and Mommy would say no, and then I don't see you again?"

"Perhaps that is the worst case scenario, but I do fear that would happen."

Luna stood up again, a determined look on her face. "I don't want you to go away. I will make sure they don't say no. You're my family too," she proclaimed, earning a sharp shush from another patron. She turned to the bookshelf the shush had come from behind, and loudly shushed back.

Loki let out a quiet laugh, and humored her. "How are you going to do that?"

Turning around and putting her hands on her hips, she remembered to lower her voice. "I don't know." 

At that moment, Primrose turned the corner around a nearby bookshelf to find her daughter. "Luna, don't run off like that. You scared me," she said, picking Luna up and resting her on her hip. 

Loki rose from his seat, and Primrose looked over. "I'm sorry if she was bothering you," she was quick to apologize. "She just loves to socialize."

"It's quite alright. She's no bother," he assured.

"Right, then. Thank you for keeping an eye on her." She smiled, and turned to walk away. Before she could take a step however, something struck her. Not anything physical, but it was enough to make her turn back and face Loki again. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

Of course she did. Of course he knew she did. But of course he wasn't going to let her know he knew she did.

"I don't believe so," he said. 

"Hmm," she nodded, wearing an expression that said she wasn't one hundred percent convinced. "You just look kinda familiar. Nevermind. Have a good night." Turning around again, she actually made her way out of the library, needing to pick up Heather and take her to work. Behind her back, just before they were out of sight, Luna waved goodbye, wondering how she _could_ make it so Loki could stay.

**_(2011)_ **

It all started with a knock at the door. Prim had the day off work, but was currently occupied with watching Tangled with Luna on the couch, so Heather came down the stairs to answer. She peered through the peephole to see a serious-looking bald man in a black trench coat. A just-as-serious-looking woman with pulled-back black hair stood just next to him, and Heather furrowed her brow as she opened the door.

"Hello?"

"Hello. Would you be Heather Blackwood?" the man asked. 

Hesitantly, Heather nodded. "Yes I am."

"Nick Fury, official S.H.I.E.L.D. member. This is my assistant, Maria Hill. We have a few questions for you and your wife regarding an occurrence on your property," the man, Fury, introduced. 

"Oh, uhm, alright. Come in then," Heather stammered.

Prim craned her neck to look over the couch at what was going on, much to Luna's annoyance.

"Mommy, it's the best part!" she insisted, tugging on Prim's sleeve and pointing at the screen where the Snuggly Duckling ruffians were about to begin singing 'I've Got A Dream'. Her mom simply nodded distractedly, her jaw tensing slightly as Nick Fury and Maria Hill walked into the house. She turned back to Luna.

"OK. I'll be right back, OK?"

It was then that Luna noticed the two strangers. Her eyes widened at the eye patch she saw Fury wearing, and her imagination ran wild thinking of possible reasons he was wearing it.

Primrose stood from the couch, and went to stand next to her wife, arms crossed over her chest. "Everything alright?" she asked Heather, her gaze not leaving the S.H.I.E.L.D agents.

"Yes, like I said, we just have a few questions is all." 

Prim and Heather exchanged a glance, nodded at each other, and turned away. Heather led Fury and Maria to their kitchen table to sit, and Prim walked back into the living room and turned off the tv. Luna looked up at her, confused.

"Angel, Momma and I need to have what sounds like will be a grown-up discussion. You can finish Tangled up in our room if you want, OK?"

Luna pouted a little at not getting to be involved, but agreed solemnly. She took a peek over her shoulder back at her parents before making her way upstairs.

"Before you start," Prim said, sitting in the chair next to Heather, "what exactly is S.H.I.E.L.D.? Some Secret Service side gig?" Next to her, Heather held back a smirk, but neither Fury or Maria looked any bit amused.

"No. It stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division," Maria explained.

"Good Lord, what a mouthful," Prim retorted. This time Heather couldn't stop a small chuckle leave her mouth. "Well, what kind of intervention are you conducting with us?"

Fury brought up a file from under the table and placed it in front of the two wives.

"A few days ago, a kind of astronomical phenomenon occurred in New Mexico. Since then, our agents have been investigating what caused it, and why. Our research showed that a similar phenomenon happened six years ago, here in New York," Maria said.

"Your yard, actually," Nick added. He opened the file to reveal what looked like satellite images of a large field and an overview of their house. Only, in both locations, there were large blobs of color, like a heat signature reading. 

Both Heather and Prim wore expressions both impressed and concerned.

"Looks like our pride flag," Prim muttered to Heather, who, doing her best to stay focused on the discussion at hand and not chortle at her wife's remarks, looked up at the agents.

"Why is this just being brought up now?" 

"Our satellites picked up this occurrence," Maria began, pointing to the photo of their house. "when it happened. Most of our employees believed it was a system anomaly since we had been having technical difficulties at the time. That, and after investigation through the news, it didn't seem that anything came from the phenomenon, which further proved the anomaly theory. But it happened again, six years later, and something did come from it," she finished, moving her finger to the picture of the field in New Mexico.

"What came from it?" Prim asked.

"Classified," Fury stated. "But it led us to wonder if something did come from it the first time." He finished his statement with a suspicious glare at Heather and Prim.

"I can assure you, nothing out of the ordinary has happened in this neighborhood," Prim disputed. She was about to say something else when Heather laid a hand on her arm. She looked to her wife, who was studying the file closely.

"Darling, look at the date on this. Isn't that the night when the...?" She trailed off, looking back up.

"Ohh," Prim realized. "There was this one morning we woke up to this weird pattern burned into our lawn. The whole neighborhood thought it was aliens or something. But other than that, which we figured must have been a prank, nothing out of the ordinary." 

Heather nodded confirmation as she finished speaking.

"Do you remember what it looked like?" Maria questioned.

"I don't know. Like, kind of a waffle shape?" Heather said, making a shape with her hands.

"Yeah, it was, cause you insisted we go get waffles that morning for breakfast," Prim recalled, earning a fond laugh from her wife.

"You're sure you don't remember anything else different that day?" Fury prodded, to which both women shook their heads. "Any new objects or beings that weren't here before?"

" _Beings?_ No, definitely not," Heather said firmly.

"Then we're done here," Fury said, standing up, and grabbing the file as he did so.

Maria followed suit, thanking them for their time and cooperation. Prim swiftly stood and showed them to the door. 

"Have a nice rest of the day," Heather called to their retreating backs. 

"You as well," Fury said back. Just as the agents closed the door behind them, Prim distinctly heard Fury utter to Hill "'Secret Service side gig'. Honestly. Like the female version of Stark," incredulously. 

* * *

While Prim and Heather were first sitting down with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Luna had grumpily marched up the stairs, not seeing why she couldn't have stayed downstairs to watch her movie. Holding the Tangled DVD in her hands, she trudged to her bedroom first, wanting to grab a stuffed animal to watch the film with, but she promptly dropped the disk when she saw who was standing in her room.

"Goddaddy!" she called cheerily, running up to hug him. He sank down to properly hug her back, smiling to hide the somber expression he'd worn mere seconds ago. "There's a pirate talking to Momma and Mommy," Luna whispered as she pulled away.

"Is that so?" Loki asked, straightening out his suit. Luna nodded fervently.

"Mmm hmm, he has a crew member with him, and an eye patch." She made an 'O' shape with her fingers and put it over her eye. "He doesn't have a pirate beard, though. He has no hair!"

"Not all pirates have hair, Luna. But listen, I need to tell you something, and I can't stay long."

Her face fell a little at his tone of voice. "What's wrong?"

"Do you remember I told you Thor was going to become king of Asgard?" Luna nodded slower this time. "Well, the other day, our - _his_ father banished him here to Earth." 

"Oh, no."

"After doing so, he then fell ill, so now I must be the one to rule over Asgard."

His words took a moment to sink in, but when they did, Luna beamed bright as the sun. "You get to be the king? That's so cool!" She started jumping around happily, and Loki put his hands up in protest.

"Luna, Luna, settle down for a minute."

Pausing, she looked up at him, and something visibly clicked as she remembered "Oh yeah, 'm sorry your dad's sick. Hope he gets better."

A pang of hurt reverberated through his chest, making a sharp stop at his heart and leaving him feeling as though he'd been stabbed. Covering up any painful emotions he felt, he went on.

"Yes, well, that's not what I meant. I meant that my becoming king will mean I won't get to come visit you as often."

"You're leaving? For how long?" Luna cried, not liking where the conversation was going.

"I can't be certain," Loki explained. "It may be months before I can make the trip to this realm again."

Luna frowned at this, her shoulders slouching sadly. 

"Hey," he rest his hand on Luna's arm as he spoke, "I'm telling you this because I don't want you to worry when I'm gone for long. I will return to see you. Do you understand?" he finished softly. Luna nodded, reaching out in a silent request for a hug, to which he gladly acquiesced. "It's alright," he said as they embraced, "I will never leave you for good." 

"You promise?" she asked in a watery voice.

"I promise." Even though he was known as for being the God of Lies, he swore this was one promise he would never lie about. He pulled away, gently wiping a tear from Luna's cheek. "I do have to go now."

"Back home?"

"Not yet. First I need to find Thor and give him the news I just told you."

"OK," Luna sniffled, "say hi to uncle Thor for me?"

Loki sighed at this, a faint smile tugging at his mouth.

"Alright." Standing up, he walked over to the bedroom window and opened it, swinging his legs out of it in preparation to leave through it. He turned back to Luna. "I'll see you again."

And with that, he pushed himself through the window.

Running over to the window, Luna propped herself up on the windowsill to say a last goodbye, but it was too late. He'd already teleported himself down to where Thor had been cast away.

"See you again, goddaddy," she whispered to the open air.

It was a good thing Loki had told her not to expect him for a while, because not even three days later, Thor made his return to Asgard, just as Loki was about to wipe out Jotunheim. One fight led to another, and Loki was falling through time and space, and then making an arrangement with a Titanian no one should ever hope to meet.

It would be another year before Luna would see her godfather again.


	6. And He Wouldn't Have Gotten Away With It, If It Weren't For Their Meddling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick heads-up, as per request from my friend/beta reader I made this first scene between Loki and Tony as flirty as I could bear to write. If FrostIron is your NOTP, the flirtiness ends after the line of bold tildes if you want to skip. You won't miss much.

**(2012)**

Standing on the balcony of Stark Tower with the gifted scepter in his hands and his mind in a fog, Loki watched the owner of said tower come flying down to the deck above him after a futile attempt to destroy the Tesseract. The man of iron slowly made his way along the deck above him, machinery removing his armor piece by piece, and he glanced over at Loki carefully. The demigod held his gaze, even as he turned to meet him inside the tower.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," he said once both of them had gone inside. He truly would rather they surrender before things got too out of hand, though he had a feeling that Thor's little friends wouldn't give in so easily.

"Uh, actually I'm planning to threaten you."

Yup, the feeling was correct.

"You should've left your armor on for that," Loki pointed out. Surely this man must know one-on-one there was no way he'd win between the two of them. 

"Yeah," Tony shrugged. "It's seen a bit of mileage, and you've got the, er, Glow Stick of Destiny. Would you like a drink?"

"Stalling me won't change anything," Loki smirked.

"No, no. Threatening," Tony reiterated. "No drink? You sure? I'm having one," he offered again, having sauntered his way over to the mini-bar he _of course_ had.

Of all the threats he'd ever been on the receiving end of, this one was certainly turning out to be the most friendly Loki had endured, if one could even call this that. But this was no time to go deeper down that train of thought, this was a human, one who's planet he was about to dominate whether either of them liked it or not. He changed the subject.

"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that," he said, facing the window overlooking the city. "What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers," Tony said plainly, pouring himself a glass of alcohol. Loki turned his back to the window, raising his brow at the billionaire. "It's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type thing," he explained while pouring a second glass of alcohol on the off chance the demigod would change his mind. Planning an alien invasion or not, Loki was technically a guest in Stark Tower, and who was Tony to not have a drink ready for a guest?

"Oh yes, I've met them," Loki affirmed with what came close to a wink, walking closer to the mini-bar Tony still stood behind. Tony made a noise somewhere between a scoff and a laugh at Loki's words.

"Yeah. Takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a headcount here. Your brother, the demigod," Tony began, not missing how Loki scoffed at Thor's mention. As Loki turned his attention away, Tony reached under the counter to discreetly place two metal bracelets around his wrists, programmed to summon his suit straight onto him as soon as it was ready. "A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend. A man with breathtaking anger management issues. A couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you have managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan," Loki replied, an amused smirk stuck on his face. Tony pursed his lips as he circled the mini-bar, thus removing the last thing separating him from a literal demigod who could kill him with no great feat.

"Well, was part of your plan to also piss off your goddaughter? Cause I can't imagine she'd be any bit pleased by what you're doing."

Just like that, the amusement was swiped right off Loki's face, replaced with a dark, dangerous look in his eyes. "How do you know about her?" he asked lowly, grasping the scepter a little tighter.

"Before your attempts at turning us against each other, your brother..."

The billionaires words died in his throat as Loki suddenly swept forward, pushing Tony back until he was pressed flush between the princes body and the mini-bar.

"He is _not_ my brother," Loki hissed, pinning Tony's free hand down on the counter behind him with his own free hand. Surprise and a hint of fear flashed through Tony's eyes before he played it cool again.

"Not a position I thought I'd be in today. Had I known we'd be getting handsy, I would've put my drink down..."

Again, Tony was silenced when Loki held the blade of the scepter against his throat, and pressed forward just enough so that Tony had to lean backward over the counter.

"Do you ever stop talking?" Loki asked, menacing gaze unwavering. "Running that mouth of yours is going to get you into such trouble."

Forcing himself to take a breath and not think about anything other than the task at hand (distract Loki long enough for his suit to deploy), Tony countered "How much trouble?" in an attempted sultry voice.

Ignoring the... everything about how Tony was talking, Loki dragged the scepter downwards so the tip hovered above Tony's chest.

"You're about to find out."

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

With this, he touched the scepter to the spot where Tony's heart, and his arc reactor, was, to pull him under the influence of the Mind Stone too.

Except that when he did, nothing happened. In fact, the scepter seemed to shut down when it made contact. Confused, Loki glanced down and tried again, but to no avail.

Tony could practically hear the Windows Shut-Down noise when the scepter once again failed to corrupt him.

"This... usually works," Loki muttered.

"Well, performance issues are not uncommon," Tony piped up, and Loki looked back up at him with disbelief. He was trying to brainwash him into following his every command, and this man was prattling on about _performance issues?_ "One out of five..."

Having had enough, Loki let go of the man's wrist and grabbed him by the jaw, stepping back and lifting him up like a bag of plums. "You will all fall before me," he growled.

"JARVIS, anytime now," Tony breathed before Loki marched over to the window wall and threw Tony right out of it. The demigod watched him scream his way down a few stories before the Iron Man suit Tony had been waiting for finally booted up, launching out the window after Tony and knocking Loki out of the way as it did so.

Irritated, and somewhat flustered over what had just transpired between him and Tony, the prince peeled himself off the floor and collected his dignity back up. Grabbing the scepter up from where it landed next to him, Loki made his way up to the roof of Stark Tower. 

He looked down at Erik Selvig's unconscious body with contempt, using the scepter to activate the Tesseracts portal. As the gaping blue hole split open the sky, Loki went back down through the tower to walk along the deck Tony had entered from to observe as the Chitauri made their entrance, and began the war.

* * *

There had been a point during the battle where the Chitauri's victory, and therefore Loki's victory, seemed inevitable. For a few minutes, Loki had the whole planet Earth in his grasp.

And then the Hulk launched himself into Stark Tower and threw Loki around like a little rag doll.

Humiliating as that was, it wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that when one under the influence of the Mind Stone gets hit hard enough on the head, they recalibrate and return to their old self. Getting body slammed repeatedly is a great way to break free of the effects of the Mind Stone. 

Loki lay petrified in the rubble and debris on the Tony's floor, now liberated from the scepters power, but now burdened with his actions from that moment all the way back to when he first became influenced. Back when he first fell into The Sanctuary a year ago.

The angry haze that the Mind Stone had used to drive Loki's every decision dissipated, leaving horrific visions of everything that had occurred since being put under Thanos's control playing in his head like a film.

What had he done? Loki didn't want people to die, he didn't want to be the bringer of so much destruction, and he certainly didn't want to rule over a measly planet, certainly not the one his goddaughter was being raised on...

Oh.

Oh, _no._

Was Luna alright?

She lived just outside the city he'd just waged a war in. There was no way he'd be able to forgive himself if she had gotten caught in the crossfire and not made it out alive. And if she had, there was no way she'd forgive him after hearing this whole battle was because of him.

 _What_ had he _done?_

Painfully, since getting slammed into the floor over and over didn't exactly come without injury even for a demigod, Loki got up off Tony's floor again. He'd pulled himself into a slightly upright position when he noticed a shadow looming over him. 

He looked up into the six faces of the Avengers, all armed and ready to kill him if he so much as moved wrong.

There was no way he was getting out of this one, was there?

* * *

"Luna, honey, can you go turn on the news channel?" Heather asked as her and her daughter walked through their front door. Luna's school had dismissed early due to an emergency evacuation of the city. Heather had picked her up from school ASAP, and the Blackwood's house was far enough outside the city that they would be safe there, but Heather was still very worried, as Primrose worked in the city. Understandably, she was desperate to know what exactly was happening, and if her wife was safe.

Throwing her backpack to the side, Luna sprinted over to the television and jammed the power button on. It didn't take long to find a report of what was happening, since it was being covered on half the channels. Heather sat down next to Luna on the couch anxiously, listening intently. The station Luna had settled on was currently showing a lady standing in front of a flaming car and a building with a hole in the wall.

"... _called an immediate evacuation after a gaping hole opened in the sky directly above Stark Tower here in downtown Manhattan,_ " the reporter said as the camera switched to a ground view of the Chitauri flooding through the portal.

"My god," Heather breathed, covering her mouth with her hand.

" _Luckily_ ," the reporter went on, back in the screen and surrounded by people all clamoring behind her. " _a newly formed group of superheroes who call themselves the Avengers managed to fight off the creatures that came through, and closed what everyone is referring to as the portal before any violence spread too far out of the city. Witnesses_..."

The front door burst open at that moment, and a disheveled Primrose came barreling through.

"Mommy!" Luna cheered.

"Baby!" Heather cried in relief, launching herself off the couch and across the room, embracing Prim in a huge hug. "I'm so glad you're safe, I was so worried."

"Yeah, I'm OK. I'm alright," Prom reassured between pressing kisses to her wife's cheeks. She pulled away and said with wide eyes "You're not gonna fucking believe this, though." 

"What's a fucking?" Luna asked from the couch.

Heather pursed her lips at Prim. "Language, honey."

"Sorry. Angel, don't repeat that."

"Why not?" Luna pouted.

"It's a mom word. You can say it when you're a mom," Heather explained hastily, then turned back to her wife. "Anyway, what was going on in the city?"

Prim held her arms out, ramping up the suspense before she answered.

"Aliens," she said dramatically. Heather stifled an eye roll. "Seriously! I was trying to get out of our building, Dave and Melinda and I all got stuck upstairs, and these aliens burst through the window with these sci-fi movie blaster guns! They cornered us in the bosses office with the guns, but fuc - uh, freaking Thor burst through the other window, and he knocked 'em all out!" Prim explained excitedly.

Heather's jaw dropped, and Luna's interest piqued, recognizing the name. 

"And next, Thor actually escorted the three of us down to the parking garage so we would be safe. So I say from experience that he is both a real person, hella handsome, _and_ a gentleman, it was one of those 'if I were straight' moments, you know?" Prim finished.

"I don't believe this," Heather said, taken aback. "You mean, the Thor from the myths?"

"Yes!" Prim exclaimed. "Except, I guess they're not myths anymore!"

As the mothers excitedly chattered over this new discovery, Luna turned back to a proper sitting position on the couch, mind racing. If her Mommy had seen Thor in the city, that could mean that her goddaddy would come to visit soon! It had been so long since she'd last seen him, she had so much to tell him! Beaming, she turned her attention back to the news report, also entertaining the possibility that her goddaddy was already in the city, and had helped the superheroes fight the aliens.

Her brow creased in confusion when the camera panned from the reporter lady to live footage being recorded at the main floor of Stark Tower. There onscreen, being led by one of the superheroes and his brother, was her godfather, in cuffs and chains. And a metal thing on his face. 

What? 

She watched intently as lots of men in suits approached the superheroes, trying to listen to what the reporters on the news were saying, but the reporters were all using a lot of big words Luna didn't understand. Finally, one of the reporters said something that did make sense.

"... _it appears_ _now the Avengers are turning Loki over to federal agents, who no doubt will place him in prison..."_

Luna's stomach dropped.

_What?_

Why was her goddaddy being put in prison? Why would superheroes put her goddaddy in prison? Why, most of all, would his brother put her goddaddy in prison? It made no sense. Her goddaddy couldn't have done anything wrong. 

Hastily, Luna leaped off of the couch, fleeing up the stairs to her bedroom.

"Luna?" she heard her Momma call after her, which she ignored, slamming her bedroom door shut as soon as she entered.

Downstairs, Primrose and Heather exchanged bewildered glances. Prim then looked to the tv. "Maybe the reports showed something disturbing. I can't imagine there wouldn't be any deaths after what happened out there," she mused, pushing the power button to shut it off.

Luna crawled on top of her bed, tears forming in her eyes. 

Superheroes were putting her goddaddy in jail. She didn't know much about jail, but she knew when people went to jail, they were there for a long time. Sometimes forever. What if the superheroes put him in jail forever? What if she never saw her goddaddy again? What kind of superheroes would be so mean as to take away her goddaddy forever?

Burying her face in the body of her favorite snow leopard plushie, Luna let her tears fall.

* * *

What happened next would've been helpful for Luna to have seen. But even if she hadn't run off, what happened next was something the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents paid the reporters and newscasters to stop filming and keep classified, so it wasn't something anyone except the people in Stark Tower would've seen.

Loki stood idly by as Thor and Tony were discussing his fate with some man named Alexander Pierce. Thor was insisting Loki would go back to Asgard to face the wrath of his father, Pierce was trying to convince him to let Loki stay and serve time on Earth, and Tony really had no standing point in the argument, but had butted his way in anyway. Typically.

The argument began escalating as the subject changed to who would be taking the Tesseract, and Pierce began advancing on Tony, who was trying to diffuse the argument.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, Tony's body stiffened, then doubled over onto the floor. The humans all converged around them, panicking, and the two demigods glanced at each other in surprise before Thor dropped down to figure out what was happening. 

"Speak to me," Thor said, with no answer from the convulsing scientist other than his arc reactor pulsating a light that it hadn't been before. "Stark, is it your chest machine?" 

Someone outside all the action called for someone to retrieve a medic, but Loki saw something more... out of the ordinary. The suitcase that contained the Tesseract had, without visible prompting, launched across the floor and away from the group of people. The prince did a double-take, looking in confusion at the crowd. No, he definitely didn't see anyone make an effort to move it. But it was moving now, being picked up by a man in a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent suit who then tried to take his leave with it.

A loud crash sounded behind him, followed by people clamoring. The Hulk, who had been previously made to walk down the stairs all the way down from the penthouse, had burst out of the stairway in an understandable huff. He who'd been in the middle of stealing the case got knocked backward in the chaos, and the Infinity Stone flew out of it, sliding back across the ground to stop at Loki's foot.

No one around him seemed to notice it, everyone being busy either trying to bring Tony back to consciousness or scrambling to get out of the building before they became victims of the Hulk's next tantrum.

There it was. Just laying there at his feet.

An escape.

In the blink of an eye, Loki swooped down, picked up the Tessract, and harnessed its power once more to open a gateway through space.

He disappeared through it just as Tony came back to life, thanks to Thor using Mjolnir for some questionable defibrillation. The relief of Tony not being dead quickly dissipated as it dawned on everyone that their prisoner had vanished. Their prisoner, and the Infinity Stone.


End file.
